Showing posts with label Authenticator. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Authenticator. Show all posts

Saturday, December 3, 2011

My Own Private Drama

For security reasons I chose to get 2-step verification to my Google Account, which I use for my gmail, my Google+ and my blog. It adds an extra layer of security by requiring that I have access to my iPhone – as well as my username and password – when I sign in. In addition to my username and password, I should enter a code that Google should supply to an app on my phone when I sign in.
"2-step verification drastically reduces the chances of having the personal information in your Google account stolen by someone else. Why? Because hackers would have to not only get your password and your username, they'd have to get a hold of your phone." 
Well that's how it is supposed to work according to Google. Sounds awesome huh? If it worked as intended I am sure it would be, but it doesn't!

You have an option when using it to let you stay logged in for 30-days. That first 30-day period expired for me yesterday, Friday. No problems I thought and brought up the Google Authenticator app to get the code for accessing my accounts again. I must have tried about 50 of those six digit codes generated by the app, but was told every time that the codes were not valid.

As I had to go on a Christmas dinner with my workmates yesterday I gave up for the evening and thought I would deal with it again today, after I had sobered up.

Well I tried 25 times today also, then I removed the app and reinstalled it and set it up again according to instructions and tried another 25 times. Still I got the message that the codes generated by the app were not valid. Totally frustrated I shut down the computer and gave up on ever accessing my blog ever again.

After a few hours trying not to think about the damned thing, I suddenly remembered I had actually gotten a set of ten written backup-codes when first setting up the thing. So I thought I might try them before giving up completely. Lo and behold, the backup code actually did work.

So in the future I am not even going to use the app generated codes but going for the backup codes straightaway, you can easily get ten new ones when you have used the first ten.

Bock in SecondLife is back in the air again. The world is safe as this blog continues it´s fight for truth. justice and the SecondLife way of life.